DISCONTINUED
Alina Fairgrieves-Byers and Gabriel Burton have learned to expect the worst, but that doesn't make things less disappointing.
𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄
( 𝐎𝐂 𝐗 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐑 )
( 𝐎𝐂 𝐗 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐁𝐘𝐄...
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hot blooded
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. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧
No matter how many times Alina did presentations, they never got easier. There was just something about going up and showing off to the world, knowing that she would be marked on every little movement—she'd once been docked marks for jiggling her leg—that did not work well with her. Everyone seemed to be judging her, their eyes boring straight into her soul. Often, she struggled to find an even slightly friendly face—that was what happened when you spent the majority of your life without friends. Everyone was a hostile, everyone was searching her for flaws, everyone secretly wished to see her fail.
Of course, that was rarely true, but Alina's stressed-out brain wasn't listening to facts and logic. It was pure panic, pure discomfort, and it only ceased its incessant yammering the moment it was all over. Before and during, though? She was hopeless.
Today, it was only the encouraging looks from Will and El that kept Alina on her feet. She'd been unlucky enough to be one of the first people with her name drawn from Mrs. Gracey's Jar of Terror, and was thus forced to wobble her way to the front of the classroom before either El or Will had gone. There, she'd pinned her poster to the board and begun.
In an unusual act of responsibility, Alina had actually memorized her lines for this assignment. Forcing a smile, she rattled them off, telling herself that this was far easier than helping defeat the Mind Flayer and surviving an extended possession. But as she watched the faces of her white classmates darken as she mentioned the abuse Ruby Bridges faced, she almost wished she was vomiting up the Mind Flayer again.
"Just over twenty years ago, I would not be allowed in this classroom without facing a barrage of slurs, physical violence, and death threats," she finished, trembling a little. "Ruby Bridges' story is an important one to tell because it reminds us that though we have come a long way since then, we have an even longer way to go before we achieve true equality. Thank you."
The class burst into scattered applause, and Alina breathed out a relieved sigh, moving toward her desk. She was only halfway there, however, when Mrs. Gracey called, "Great job, Alina. That was very well said."
